Brainthoughts

Because that's what they are and titles are hard

Sharing isn't always Caring

I have a younger brother who lives on the West Coast. A few times a year he flies out to the East Coast to visit my mom and I. This summer he visited for a couple of weeks and we coordinated schedules so we had about a week of overlap at our mom's house. Our bedrooms are set up "Jack and Jill" style, which means my brother's bedroom and my bedroom are connected by a shared bathroom. Since I am only an hour away from our mom, I tend to visit way more often, so I have my whole situation set up just so - including the shared bathroom. With my brother's visit everything shifted and became not so "so." For instance the bathroom evolved into a display for every variety of Axe deodorant and body spray ever made. It became a passive aggressive battleground where every time I was in the bathroom, I would grab an armful of Axe products and stuff them all into a drawer. Whenever my brother was in the bathroom, he would put them all back out on the counter. Typical.
Towards the end of our week of visiting, I am in the bathroom, washing my face or something, and I notice that my brother has no toothbrush. There is my toothbrush in the corner through a sea of red containers, standing in its weird little stand. But no second toothbrush. Has he really not been brushing his teeth for a week?? So gross. I had to know. MAYBE he had one in a travel bag, or maybe he thought the toothbrush belonged in a drawer. A few minutes after my discovery, my brother joins me in the bathroom, so I ask, "hey do you have a toothbrush?"

Casually he says, "no, I've just been using that one." He is pointing at my toothbrush.

First of all I thought the grossest thing was that he wasn't using a toothbrush at all, I was caught off guard by the fact that the grossest thing was actually that we had been sharing a toothbrush for a week. I don't know where that mouth has been! He had been hanging out with a variety of different girls every night and is a habitual cigarette smoker. But what was I thinking? It was more important that HE WAS MY BROTHER. Incestuous Oral Hygiene. I was justifiably in shock, so instead of punching him in the mouth, all I could say was, "what."

Still incredibly casual, he said, "Yeah, I was too embarrassed to ask for a new toothbrush, so I just used that one. Its not a big deal."

I BEG TO DIFFER, SIR. I couldn't understand how he could be embarrassed about saying, "hey I don't have a toothbrush, got any spares?" but he could be so NOT embarrassed by saying, "hm I don't have a toothbrush. I'll just use my sisters, NBD."

I like to think I wasn't being over dramatic when I ran away yelling, "MOMMM!!!!!!" To tattle immediately.

Later I found out that there was a serious possibility that my brother had mono, and therefore it was possible that I could get mono from my brother. MONO. from my BROTHER. But no one had it so no one got it.